Pendragon: Class Act
by Brinkster
Summary: A Bobby Pendragon fanfic. Bobby is now on Xelios a futuristic territory with some big problems. Saint Dane is already stirring up trouble and it's now up to Bobby and the Traveler to save the territory. Please R/R! (Chapter 6 is now up!!)
1. Where to next?

Disclaimer: Yes, I used a lot of D. J. MacHale's characters that's why this is a Pendragon fanfic. I just couldn't wait any longer for the fourth book to come out so I decided to try my luck writing a short one myself. It's my first fanfic so please not too many harsh reviews. I do appreciate constructive criticism though.  
  
- Hello! Thank you for taking the time to reading my first Bobby Pendragon fanfic! I strongly suggest that you read the first three Pendragon books (Merchant of Death, Lost City of Faar, and The Never War) before you read my fanfic. My story starts off right at the end of the third book. There are major spoilers from all three books throughout my fanfic also some of this may be hard to understand if you have not already read the first three books. Now if you have already devoured the first three books by D. J. MacHale and can't wait to read his next one than by all means read my fanfic! And afterwards please review! -  
  
"Bye!" yelled Courtney one last time as the limo pulled away from 2 Linden Place. Bobby was in that car and who knew when she would get to see him again. Courtney Chetwynde turned to the person standing next to her. Mark Diamond was still waving even though the limo was out of sight.  
  
"Well," said Mark, "I guess that's that."  
  
"Yeah, I guess you're right," replied Courtney. Courtney felt a single tear slide down her cheek, she brushed it away quickly so that Mark wouldn't notice but he already had.  
  
"It's ok," he said tears starting to well up in his eyes also, "We both miss him,"  
  
"It's not just that," snapped Courtney angrily, "It's so dangerous out there and Bobby is going right back into it. Doesn't he realize that he would be so much safer here!"  
  
"I think he does but he is still going because he has finally realized that this is what he was meant to do." Mark said softly.  
  
"Yeah, you're right, you're always right," said Courtney grinning. She punched Mark lightly in the arm, but even though it was lightly Mark still got pushed over a bit.  
  
"Ouch!" he yelled almost falling over.  
  
Courtney laughed and grabbed his arm before he fell over. "Sorry," she said.  
  
"I don't think you realize your own strength," said Mark. They both laughed and started the walk back to Mark's house where Courtney had left her stuff.  
  
It was weeks before Mark and Courtney talked again. It was their first year in high school. Courtney started on the varsity volleyball team even though she was only a freshman; needless to say volleyball took up most of her time. Mark concentrated on grades and joined the technology club that Stony Brook High had. Both lapsed back into their normal lives. The only thing they had in common was Bobby Pendragon. Then one Saturday in September Mark was reading a new manga that he had just gotten when his felt his ring start to twitch. At first Mark wasn't sure what it was but then the ring twitched again and start to grown. Mark jumped up and slammed his door shut; he didn't want his parents who were some to know anything about the ring, what a disaster that would be. The ring grew till the diameter was about 3 feet wide, the music became louder, Mark glanced at his door hoping that his parents didn't hear it and barge in. Mark walked over and locked his door just in case. He then turned back the ring, but it had already shrunk back to normal size. Mark then started to freak because instead of a journal like Bobby normally sent there was a small instrument that looked like a calculator or actually like a palm pilot computer. Mark slowly bent down and picked it up, as soon as he touched it the tiny machine light up and the screen read, Bobby's Journal. Below it there was a button that on the screen that said, Chapter One. "Whoa," said Mark, this was a lot different than the other journals. When Bobby was on Denduron his journals had been made of thick brown paper, then when Bobby had traveled to Cloral they had been made of a rubbery green paper. When he had been on Third Earth his journal's had been typed with a typewriter and bound. Mark's curiosity was already starting to get to him but he had promised Courtney that he wouldn't read anything without her. Putting the journal on his pants pocket Mark unlocked his door and went to the kitchen. His mom was making dinner; it looked like another one of her famous mystery casseroles. "Hey honey," she said.  
  
"Hey Mom, uhh.I need to use the phone for sec."  
  
"Whatever sweetie," she relied as she poured an unknown spice into the casserole. Mark went red in embarrassment, why did his mother still have to call him honey and sweetie, did she not realize that he was in high school now? He quickly grabbed the cordless phone and escaped back to his room. Mark dialed Courtney's number; "Hello?" said a Mr. Cheywynde voice on the other end.  
  
"Hello, this is Mark Diamond, may I please speak with Courtney?"  
  
"Sure, Mark, just a sec, are you guys starting another one of your projects in my basement?" he asked.  
  
"Oh, well we might," replied Mark. Courtney's dad had equipped the Chetwynde's basement with lots of tools but never used them. The last time they had received Bobby's journals they had spent all day in the basement reading. It had kind of become their Bobby sanctuary.  
  
"Hello, Mark?" said Courtney on the line.  
  
"Hey Courtney, I've gotten another journal. What do you want to do?"  
  
"Can you come over here?" asked Courtney, her voice sounded anxious.  
  
"Yeah, how about in fifteen minutes?" replied Mark.  
  
"Great, hurry!" replied Courtney eagerly.  
  
"See ya in a couple!" Mark said and hung up. Mark picked up his backpack and ran out to the kitchen.  
  
"Mom, I've gotta go work on a project for school. I'll be back later" he said hurriedly.  
  
"Oh, but you might miss dinner." said Mrs. Diamond. "I'm making a masterpiece, just you wait and see." Mark eyed the mess that his mom was cooking up for dinner.  
  
"Sorry, Mom I've really have to get started on this project pronto."  
  
"Well alright, I'll save you some ok, pumpkin?"  
  
"Right, gotta go!" yelled, Mark racing out the door.  
  
Mark was just about to knock on the Chetwynde's door when it opened. Standing in jean shorts and a Stony Brook High Volleyball t-shirt. She practically pulled Mark into the house. "Let's go to the basement," said Courtney. "You go ahead, I'll get some chips and sodas."  
  
"Alright" said Mark walking the now familiar path to the Chetwynde's basement steps. The basement looked much the same as it had just before school started except that many of the tools were now gone.  
  
"Mom made Dad get rid of some," said Courtney startling Mark. Courtney plopped down on the couch and set the drinks on a nearby table. Mark sat down next to her and pulled out Bobby's journal. "Wow!" exclaimed Courtney looking at the high-tech gadget that Mark had in his hand. Mark handed it to Courtney. "You ready?" asked Courtney.  
  
"Yeah, you start first." Replied Mark. The last journals that they had received from Bobby they had taken turns reading. Courtney pushed the button that said Chapter One but instead of going to a screen with the first Chapter a piece of the machine opened up to reveal two sets of headphones. "Cool!" said Mark reaching for one of the headphones. Courtney picked up the other pair and put them over her ears. The screen now read, "Start". Courtney looked at Mark, he gave her a thumbs up sign and she pushed the button. 


	2. Journal 13

Journal #13  
  
Hey guys! Cool little gadget isn't it. It's called a Messenger, great name, eh? To start off I'm not on Veelox. I was planning on going there but things changed. After I left you guys, Gunny and I went to the now familiar flume in the abandoned subway station in New York City. The ride to Veelox was uneventful; Gunny and I each went separately through the flume. I hoped that Saint Dane hadn't caused too much trouble already in Veelox and that Aja Killian would understand just how powerful Saint Dane really was. Veelox was just as it had been the last time I was there with Spader, completely dark. I waited for Gunny and hoped that my eyes would adjust to the darkness so that I could see where I was. I moved slightly to the right so that Gunny wouldn't knock me down once he arrived, I waited a couple more seconds and Gunny appeared.  
  
"It's really dark here!" exclaimed Gunny.  
  
"Yeah, this was the way it was last time Spader and I came."  
  
Then suddenly just as before the huge head of Aja Killian appeared above us. "You are late again," she said irritably. "Saint Dane has left Veelox already"  
  
"What?" I said, "You mean he isn't here?"  
  
"That's what I just told you, moron!" yelled Aja.  
  
"Where has he gone to then?" Gunny asked.  
  
"Xelios," replied Aja.  
  
"Xelios? Never heard of it, have you been there," I asked Gunny.  
  
"Nope, but if that's where Saint Dane went then that's were we need to head to."  
  
"Yes, just leave, I can take care of myself thank you very much!" snapped Aja.  
  
"Fine, fine," I said, "I guess we should go to Xelios." I turned to Gunny. "You do the honors."  
  
"Xelios!" he yelled and we headed to our next territory.  
  
The flume ride was uneventful though we seemed to be going much faster than we had the other times I had rode the flumes. I asked Gunny what he thought was the reason for the faster flume ride. He said that maybe it was because Xelios was a lot farther away than the other territories had been. We landed in what looked like a mine, it was definitely abandoned because everything was dusty and all the lights were broken.  
  
"Well, we made it" I said.  
  
"Yes, but what do we do now?" asked Gunny.  
  
"Let's get on some Xelios clothing and try to find a way to the surface,"  
  
"Sounds good, but where are the clothes?" asked Gunny as he searched around the small cave.  
  
"Wonderful," I said sarcastically looking in the opposite direction Gunny was. We both searched the cave top to bottom but there were no clothing or any other equipment that the acolytes usually left Travelers so that they could blend in with the people of the territory.  
  
"Maybe the people of Xelios dress similar to us?" I said hopefully.  
  
"I highly doubt it," replied Gunny, "Plus, how would the acolytes know what territory we have come from?"  
  
"Good question," I said, "I think it's about time we learned something about these acolytes."  
  
Gunny nodded, "So should we just wear what we have on?"  
  
"It doesn't look like we have much choice, hopefully we'll be able to find someplace to get clothes before too many people notice us." I said, as I started towards the tunnel that hopefully led outside. Gunny slowly followed, giving one last look at the cave in case he had missed something but there was nothing but rocky walls and the door to the flume with the star on it. We walked slightly uphill for about ten minutes, though it seemed like hours, in almost complete darkness before we saw a small sliver of light coming from the end of the tunnel.  
  
"Finally," I said, quickening my pace.  
  
Gunny and I reached a door where the light was streaming in from the bottom. Gunny looked to me expectantly.  
  
"Here's goes nothing," I said and opened the door. Both Gunny and I had to shield our eyes from the harsh light. Once our eyes adjusted to brightness we looked around. The first thing I noticed was that Xelios had two suns unlike 2nd Earth. If you remember Denduron had three suns. Xelios's suns however were quite different from each other, one was high in the sky and looked very similar to our own sun, it was too bright for me to look directly at but had a yellowish tint to it. The other sun however was a dull orange color and was barely above the horizon.  
  
"Wow!" commented Gunny as he gazed at the two suns.  
  
"That's different from back home," I said.  
  
From where Gunny and I were standing we could see nothing but open farmland, it kind of reminded me of Grallion back on Cloral with their huge farms. But this was on the surface of the planet and the plants looked like our corn only that they were lower in the ground and the husks were a reddish color. The strange thing was that I didn't see any people working in the fields; the land was flat so I could see a long ways all around me but not a person was in sight.  
  
"Kinda empty, isn't it?" I said.  
  
Gunny smiled and pointed towards a small building to our right, it looked a long ways off but that was the only thing we saw except farms so we headed towards it. As we walked I noticed that the ground was a lot softer than our ground on 2nd Earth. It was almost squishy. Gunny seemed to have noticed too because he was trying to walk very lightly so as to not disturb the ground. I looked at him and he grinned, this was definitely not like home. We reached the building, which was a lot larger than I had first thought. It resembled a gas station with pump looking things outside of it. We headed to a door but as we got closer to it we found out that there wasn't a doorknob, I tried pushing it but it wouldn't budge.  
  
"Look!" said Gunny pointing to a square pad beside the door. I pushed it but nothing happened, then thinking that it was one of those palm reader things I put my hand face down on the pad. The pad lit up but the door didn't open.  
  
"Here, let me try," Gunny said putting his hand face down on the pad. Still nothing happened.  
  
"Well so much for getting in," I said. I turned around and slumped down against the door looking out towards the fields. That's when I noticed something I hadn't seen before. It was a huge building of some sort floating a couple hundred feet in the sky. Gunny and I had had our backs to it before when we had first come out of the mine, so we hadn't seen it.  
  
"Gunny, turn around!" I said jumping up and pointing. Gunny looked at the building and his mouth fell open.  
  
"My god, what is that?" he said. We both continued to stare at the massive structure high in the air until somebody tapped me on the shoulder from behind.  
  
"Ahh!" I yelled spinning around thinking it was Saint Dane; only to come face to face with a large, burly man dressed in gray pants and a blue tunic, he had a badge on his shirt that resembled a police officers badge back on 2nd Earth.  
  
"What are you two think you're doing?" he yelled, the man had a nasty looking weapon which I assumed was a gun, it was silver and sleek with markings on it that I couldn't read. By then Gunny had turned around also. Gunny looked at me and shrugged his shoulders. I guess it was up to me to explain things.  
  
"Well, we kind of umm, got lost." I said and smiled my most innocent looking smile.  
  
The guy, who assumed was a guard, didn't buy it though, "You are not allowed down here unless you are of the Brown," he said sternly.  
  
I didn't have a clue what this guy was talking about so I just lied. "Well, you see, we fell down from up there" I pointed to the buildings in the sky.  
  
"Oh you just fell down, did you?" smirked the guard sarcastically. This was not going well.  
  
"Uhh, yeah." I said. Gunny nodded in agreement.  
  
The guard gave us a disbelieving look, one that said, "Yeah, right you crazy lunatics!"  
  
"Stay right there and don't move!" the guard commanded he still had his gun out and pointed at us so he really didn't need to worry about us moving. I wasn't about to try and get away from this dude, he looked like he knew what he was doing and would probably shoot us before we got three feet away. The guard then took a small device, which looked like a phone, out of his pocket and spoke into it. "I've got two trespassers on the surface who are definitely off their rockers, they aren't even wearing the proper attire. Where do you want me to send them?"  
  
Then a voice came through the device, "Take them to Kyliger on Platform E," the voice on the other end sounded weird, like it was a computer or something. Gunny looked at me as if to say, should we make a break for it. I shook my head, at least this way we would find out more about this strange territory, though with some of the things I've seen this territory was actually quite normal.  
  
"Follow me, you two!" the guard said. He put his hand right where had both tried to get into the building, on the palm pad next to the door. This time though, the pad lit up and the doors opened. A mechanical voice said, "Welcome back Captain Towes,"  
  
"How did that machine work for you?" exclaimed Gunny looking confused.  
  
"It worked because I'm supposed to be on the surface, patrolling for people like you who aren't supposed to be here. What's with you guys? Have you forgotten that palm pads only work for the people it's programmed for? You must be more nuts than I thought." said the guard. Gunny looked extremely confused. Don't forget that Gunny is from 3rd Earth, which is 1937, he has no idea what a computer is let alone something that reads your palm.  
  
"Where are you taking us?" I asked the guard as we walked into the building.  
  
"To a holding cell until we decide how to punish you. What are you guys, some Whites trying to get the Browns to rise against us? You need to stop all this fussing and just live in the class that you are placed in."  
  
Ok, sure, I thought not knowing what this guard was talking about. Whites? Browns? Maybe it was some tribes or ethnic groups that didn't get along. I remembered learning about the Titanic and there being a first, second, and third class on the boat. A lot of the third and second-class passengers had died because there were only enough lifeboats for the first class passengers. The guard led us through the building, which was quite plain; all it had were some white desks with nothing on them and a long wall at one end with a mirror. We stopped at a door near the full-length mirror. The guard put his hand on another palm pad, this time the door opened and the voice said, "You are now entering Platform E," The guard motioned with his gun for us to go in. Gunny and I stepped into what seemed like an elevator of some sort. It was about the same size as an elevator and only had the one door but there wasn't a place to push what floor you wanted to go to. The guard walked in after us and closed the door. He then put his hand to another palm pad, these people sure like palm pads. Instead of opening a door the room, which was definitely an elevator started to move upwards. The ride was smooth but it felt like we were going much faster than a normal elevator would, it wasn't quite as fast as the elevator on Cloral in the city of Faar but it was still much faster than a 2nd Earth elevator. The room didn't have any windows so I couldn't see how high up we went. The thing that was bothering me was that I had seen this building up close and had not seen any way an elevator could go up. The building had only been one story tall. Now I was really confused. The elevator slowed to a stop and the doors opened. What I saw next astounded me. We stepped out into what seemed like an indoor mall or actually an indoor city; this must be what those floating buildings were in the sky, I thought. Large buildings and stores went for miles in all directions. People were walking about their business, and it felt much like a street in New York City would feel. Gunny touched my shoulder and pointed up. I tilted my head and stared at even more levels above me of the buildings, I could make out houses on one level and what looked like a school or library on another.  
  
"Whoa!" was all I could say. This was awesome, a whole city in the air.  
  
"Let's go! It's not like you haven't ever been to Platform E before!" yelled the guard and pulled us towards a black office building. The guard had no idea that we, in fact had never seen Platform E before. The guard took us into a large office building that had intricate sculpting and even columns on it, inside was even more brilliant then the outside. If the outside looked more like ancient Greek architecture the inside looked totally the opposite. Everything was very modern looking. The walls were a light blue color and the floor was a silver tile. There were more elevator doors with the same palm pads, I guess security is a big deal on Xelios. In the middle of the room was a round desk where two ladies were sitting with headpieces on. They seemed to be receptionists. They had flat screens; I guessed that they were computers, in front of them. There were only a few other people in the lobby area and all of them looked to be in a hurry. The guard led us to the desk and as we got closer I saw that the receptionists were also typing, or it would seem like typing they were pushing the flat screens directly instead of typing on a keyboard. Xelios seems to be a lot more advanced than 2nd Earth. It reminded me of 3rd Earth in a lot of ways.  
  
"Excuse me miss," said the guard to the receptionist on the right, "I need to take these two here to the holding cell for Platform E."  
  
The receptionist looked at us disapprovingly but smiled at the guard. "Of course, Captain Towes," she then pushed a button on a screen in front of her and one of the elevator doors to our right slide open. Did I mention that all the doors slide open they don't open like our doors on 2nd Earth?  
  
"Thank you," the guard said pleasantly to the receptionist, and then pulled us roughly in the direction of the elevator. As we were being dragged along by the burly guard a couple of people passed us on their way to something important because the nearly ran us over. I didn't think it was wise for them to just ignore the Captain as he seemed to be in a bad mood but these people gave him no notice. The guard didn't say anything like, "Watch out!" either. Maybe he just didn't like Gunny and I. All but one person in the group kept going, the last person a girl who looked only about a year or two older than myself stopped dead in her tracks. She was staring at our clothes; I guess we did look out of place. Everyone here wore gray slacks and a colored tunic; so far I had seen blue, green, white and purple. This girl was wearing a white tunic and she had some sort of badge on her sleeve.  
  
"Out of my way!" shouted the guard quite rudely. I was a confused at why he would be so polite to the receptionist at the front desk but so rude to this girl. Maybe it was because of her age. Young people are always not treated with little respect back at home. I just got used to having grownups constantly looking down on me. The girl though, seemed quite annoyed that this guard would be so rude to her. She glared at the guard for a second and then slowly walked in the direction that her colleges had gone. Just before we were pushed into the open door by the guard I looked back and saw the girl staring at us with such intensity that for a moment I thought that she recognized us as someone she knew. She was about average height, with light brown hair that was tied neatly in a bun. Her eyes were what caught my attention though, she had such light brown eyes that they looked more gold than brown. Then the guard pulled us into the elevator and I lost sight of the girl. We rode up for a few seconds on the elevator; the guard seemed to be getting antsy, like he was in a hurry to get somewhere.  
  
I wanted to say, "Hey, no problemo Mr. Guard just let us go and you won't have to worry about us," but I figured that wasn't the right thing to say to the guy. We got off and found ourselves in a long hallway with many doors on either side. The guard led us to the third one on the left and put his palm again on the palm pad. The whole time Gunny and I had been silent but once we got in this room I had planned on trying to get us out of whatever punishment we were supposed to get. Maybe if I just explained to the guard that we were sorry and that it had just been some dare for us to go to the surface he might let us off. Gunny seemed to think the same thing because he straightened himself up as we were led into the room. But instead of being able to talk to someone to get us free the guard pushed us into a small room.  
  
"See ya later!" he said jovially and slammed the door. We looked around to find that we were in a small square room that was completely empty.  
  
"Our holding cell I presume?" said Gunny.  
  
"I guess so," I replied. I was starting to get worried maybe we should have tried to get away from the guard. Who knew how long we would be left in this holding cell until the authorities decided what to do with us. We were trapped. 


	3. Journal 13 Continued

Journal 13 (Continued)  
  
Gunny and I waited in the holding cell for what seemed like hours until finally another guard came. This guard was taller and less muscular than the guard we had seen earlier. He also looked much younger; he looked like he was only about 18 years old. He was also wearing a white tunic instead of a blue. He still carried a gun though, so our chances of escaping him were slim to none.  
  
"Let's go," the guard said hurriedly, motioning with his gun for us to come with him. He then started walking down the hall without even looking to see if we were following him. Gunny and I exchanged questioning glances but stood up to follow him.  
  
"We haven't much time before the guard comes back," said the man.  
  
"Aren't you a guard?" I asked.  
  
"No, I'm Kaseph Enders of the White."  
  
"Huh?" I said confused.  
  
The guard or whoever he was quickened his pace so that we were almost running to keep up with his long legs.  
  
"You are in danger here, I'm afraid that you are scheduled for termination," replied Kaseph looking at us suspiciously.  
  
"Termination!" I said, "What are you talking about?"  
  
"My sister has learned that you are scheduled to a trial but everyone knows that the trials are just a face that the Purples and Blues put on to keep the peace. They have already planned to kill you. They think that you are rebel leaders from White or maybe Green."  
  
I started to tell this Kaseph that I didn't have a clue what he was talking about but Gunny touched my shoulder and shook his head. He was right, I didn't need to give this guy any more reason to doubt that we were from Xelios. Instead I said, "Where are you taking us?"  
  
"Someone safe, to my parents home on Platform L" he replied. We had reached another elevator door with the palm pads on it. I expected this guy to do the same as the guard had earlier and put his hand to the pad but instead he pulled out a thin square that reminded me of a computer chip and pushed it to the pad. The screen lit up and the door opened just as it had for the guard.  
  
"Why didn't you just use your hand?" Gunny asked curiously.  
  
"Because I am not allowed in this area of the building," he said. "Well, actually I'm not allowed in this building at all," he smiled for the first time and laughed. "Just don't tell anyone, ok?"  
  
"Yeah, ok" I said though I figured he was just making a joke of it. When he smiled he looked even younger, I wondered why he was helping us but before I got to ask a man at the other end of the hall came through one of the doors. He was wearing a blue tunic and carrying a gun. He yelled something and started sprinting after us.  
  
"Whisperer help us!" Kaseph said under his breath. "Go!" he shouted at us and we jumped into the elevator. Kaseph quickly started closing the doors. The guard was only feet from us and I noticed that he was the same guard who had brought Gunny and I to the holding cell. He was yelling into the same phone device that he had earlier that day.  
  
"We have an escape! I repeat we have an escape!" he yelled rushing to the elevator. We barely managed to close the doors before he slammed into us.  
  
"I take it we didn't want him to know that we were leaving?" I said sarcastically to Kaseph.  
  
"True, I didn't want anyone to know that you were gone until we had left the building," said Kaseph wearily. The elevator plummeted down through the building until we slowed to a stop on the ground floor. The elevator doors started to open but Kaseph said, "Wait!" the doors stopped moving. Cool, I thought you could talk to the computer doors.  
  
"What is it?" I asked  
  
"There will probably be guards waiting for us when we open the doors. I need you two to run straight outside and across the street to Whalen's Shoe Store and wait for me there. If I don't show up after ten minutes try to make your way to Platform L. Then ask for the Enders residence, my parents will be waiting for you there."  
  
"No, we can help you, Kaseph," I said seeing that he looked scared.  
  
"Yes, we will stay and help, you got us out of that mess back there and it wouldn't be right not to return the favor," said Gunny kindly.  
  
"Are you sure?" asked Kaseph doubtfully. "If they catch you they will most likely kill you,"  
  
"Let's just do this," I said not wanting to think about what might happen if the guards caught us again.  
  
Kaseph nodded and said, "Continue opening," to the elevator. The doors slowly opened.  
  
'Hobey, ho!" I muttered under my breath thinking of Spader. Now I wished that I had let him come with us but I knew that having him return to Cloral had been the right thing to do.  
  
We jumped out of the elevator to see that everything was normal. Or at least it was the same way it had been when Gunny and I had been dragged up to the holding cell. The two receptionists were still at their desk and various people were walking in and out of the elevators going about their business.  
  
"I don't understand," said Kaseph confused. "That guard was sure to tell everyone in the entire building that we were coming down to the lowest level."  
  
"Take it as a sign of good luck and let's just get out of here!" I said anxiously. I didn't want to stick around if an army of guards was on the next elevator down.  
  
"Right," replied Kaseph. We made our way to the doors without catching anybody's attention. Everyone was too busy to bother noticing us.  
  
We had almost reached the door when someone yelled, "Wait!" I started to run, thinking that I could make it to the door before any shots were fired when Kaseph grabbed me to stop me from sprinting off. What resulted were both of us falling down because I tried to run, thinking that someone had just attacked me and because Kaseph had tried to stop me from leaving. I looked back to find that instead of an army of guards with shiny, silver, guns pointed at us it was the girl I had seen earlier who had looked at us so intently. She walked over to where Kaseph and I were struggling to get up.  
  
"Thank the Whisperer you are ok," she said and hugged Kaseph tightly.  
  
Kaseph smiled and said, "So it was you and your fingers that saved us."  
  
I didn't know what these two were talking about or how this girl figured into everything but I did know one thing. We needed to get out of here. "Can we go now?" I said glancing back at the elevators. Still no sign of any guards but I wasn't about to take any chances hanging around here any longer.  
  
"Yes, I agree, we need to leave," said the girl suddenly letting go of Kaseph and heading outside. We followed her back to the busy street. It was all I could do to not stare at everything. This place was awesome!  
  
"I think it would be better if we flew," said the girl striding purposely towards another building. This building unlike the one we had just been in was small and very modern looking on the outside. The building looked to be made of some type of metal that was a shiny green color. It had sliding glass doors and a drive up window only that there weren't any cars, it was for people instead. The girl led us to the line that was at the window. We waited while two people in front of us got something, though I'm not sure what because all they were given little credit card things. It was our turn next; the girl moved closer to the window and said, "Number 334, Enders."  
  
The man then typed something on his flat-screened computer, "Alright, that will be 14 credits." The man then pushed another palm pad screen so that the girl could reach it. She put her palm on it but this time instead of a door opening or an elevator going down the screen lit up and that was it. Though it did say, "Thank you, Miss Enders!" in a mechanical voice. So she must be related to Kaseph, I thought. My guess was that she was his sister. Now that I looked they did look very much alike, both had light brown hair and the same almost golden eyes.  
  
"Here you go," said the man behind the window giving the girl a metallic card. She smiled at the man and then turned back towards us.  
  
"Let's first get in the speeder before we discuss anything because I'm sure you have lots of questions," she looked at me for a moment and then started walking around the building so that we could go inside. Unlike every other door I've seen this one did not have a palm pad on it. It slid open automatically and we all filed inside. I looked around the inside of the building seeing that this building was a garage of some sort. There were futuristic looking cars parked in the building, and I realized that the building was actually much larger than it looked on the outside it had levels below us much like a parking garage does. The girl led us to a small car that had white and blue paint markings on it. Mark, Courtney let me tell you guys about this car. It was totally awesome! Imagine a really fancy convertible like a BMW or Porsche only longer and without wheels. It was floating! The girl reached in her pants pocket and pulled out the card that the man had given her and slide it into a slot near what I guesses was the driver's seat. The car then came to life, the doors opened up which unlike a normal car door, the doors opened up. We all got inside, Gunny and I sitting in the back and Kaseph sitting in the drivers seat next to the girl. The seats were made of a really soft, creamy, leather and there was a lot of space even though from the outside the car looked really tiny. Kaseph put his hand on a screen next to the steering wheel, the car started to hum quietly and all the doors closed automatically.  
  
"Hello Mr. Enders would you like autopilot or manual flight systems today?" asked a pleasant mechanical voice.  
  
"Autopilot, if you don't mind," replied Kaseph.  
  
"Not at all, Mr. Enders!" replied the mechanical voice and dare I say this, it sounded excited like it wanted to be able to pilot the car. The car then started to back out of the parking spot that it was in.  
  
"Where to?" asked the car voice.  
  
"Home, please," said Kaseph.  
  
"Home it is then," replied the car voice and the car started moving down the lane in the large parking garage. Now get this, we were still hovering so I guess this wasn't exactly a car, cool eh? I felt like I was in an airplane as the plane is taxiing down the runway. The car started going down the road to the lower levels until we reached the bottom level. There we actually did start taxiing down a runway! It was a very short runway; only about 50 yards long and at the end were glass doors.  
  
"Umm, aren't we going to hit that?" I asked nervously as we started speeding up towards the glass doors.  
  
Kaseph smiled and said, "Haven't you ever been in a speeder before? This is always the way you leave one platform to go to another."  
  
"Oh yeah, right," I said feeling foolish for saying something that made myself look even more of an outsider. We were almost on the glass doors when they slide open and we flew right by them. When I say flew I mean it because we were now flying! We were up hundreds of feet in the air flying over the farmlands that Gunny and I had been walking on only hours ago. That seemed like so long ago, yet it really was only a couple of hours ago that Gunny and I had first come to Xelios.  
  
After awhile I started to get used to the sensation of flying in the speeder, for that was what it was actually called. We were flying over farmland as far as the eye could see. I hadn't seen more than a few building the whole time and then had all looked the same as the building that Gunny and I had managed to find earlier that day. My thoughts were interrupted though by the girl.  
  
"Alright, I think everyone needs to do some explaining," she said. Yikes, I thought, what was I going to say to explain why Gunny and I one, didn't have the same clothes as everyone else, two were found on the surface of Xelios and arrested and three, why we didn't know anything about Xelios. I took a deep breath planning what to say but before I had a chance to say anything the girl took the lead.  
  
"My name is Lita Enders, my brother you have already met, Kaseph. I'm the Traveler for Xelios and I assume you two are Travelers from other territories."  
  
"Whoa!" was all I could say, "You're the Traveler from here?"  
  
"Yes, though I'm still new at all of this Traveler stuff. A man named Press told me about a year ago. He was a great man but he had to leave before he was able to explain everything to me." There it was again, Uncle Press had truly done a lot of great things. Everyone seemed to have met him and knew how great a guy he was. Gunny looked at me, waiting for me to break the news to Lita about Press but I couldn't do it. I had already had to tell too many people.  
  
Gunny seemed to realize it so he said, "Lita, I'm sorry to have to tell you this but Press is dead."  
  
"What?" said Lita sounding shocked and hurt.  
  
"I am truly sorry to have to tell you," replied Gunny sadly.  
  
"We will all mourn the loss of Press, he was a great man," said Lita sadly. She shook herself a little as if to get rid of any unhappy thoughts. After a moment she spoke again, "Now may I ask what are your names?"  
  
"My name is Vincent Van Dyke from First Earth," said Gunny, "But you can just call me Gunny."  
  
"I'm Bobby Pendragon from Second Earth," I said.  
  
"Well now that we all know each other," said Lita, "I guess the real question is what are you two doing here?"  
  
"Saint Dane is here, on this territory," I said, "We tracked him to Veelox but he then decided to come here."  
  
"I figured as much," replied Lita to herself. "Oh and didn't you guys learn that you are supposed to put on the clothing that the acolytes leave you at the flume?"  
  
"There weren't any clothing or equipment at the flume. We searched the whole cave around the flume but nothing was there," said Gunny.  
  
"That's strange, there should have been. I haven't been there in over a year but when Press and I went to Third Earth we had clothing," said Lita looking confused.  
  
"Maybe somebody moved the clothing and supplies," said Kaseph. It was the first time he had said anything in the conversation. We all looked at him and I thought for the first time if maybe he shouldn't be hearing this. Lita seemed to sense what I was thinking and said, "It's ok, when I first found out that I was a Traveler and went to Third Earth I wrote to Kaseph. I tell him everything."  
  
"How'd you know that we were Travelers?" I asked  
  
"I work in the building that you were being held at, I saw you two being dragged in by Captain Towes and saw your clothes. I immediately knew that you were Travelers and knew that I had to find a way to get you free," replied Lita, "Because I work with computers a lot I've learned how to manipulate them-"  
  
"She's awesome with computers and really anything electronic!" interrupted Kaseph looking admiringly at his sister.  
  
Lita turned red and muttered something under her breath about not knowing that much. "Anyway," she continued, "Whenever someone uses the palm pad it leaves a print of his or her hand on the screen for just a second until the screen automatically erases it into an unused databank in the computer system. I simply rerouted the handprint of a guard to a separate database that I was using. I then imprinted the handprint on a computer chip so that the computer would think that it was reading a person's handprint and not a computer chip. I would have come and got you myself but I wanted to make sure the guards did not know you were escaping so I hacked into the guards security channel that they communicate with and turned off all the alarms that went off when you guys left. I didn't take into thought that a guard might be coming into that part of the building that quickly so when Captain Towes showed up I had to cut the line of his communicator off from the rest of the guard force. That's why it took me so long to reach you guys."  
  
I stared at Lita, not knowing what to say, she had done an awfully lot of things just to get Gunny and I out and it all sounded really hard. Gunny looked totally lost but that was because he was from 1st Earth and didn't even know what a computer was. Kaseph smiled and hugged Lita, "That's my sis!" he said proudly.  
  
"Wow!" I finally managed to say, "Thank you!"  
  
"No problem," replied Lita smiling, "On to more important things."  
  
"Well," said Gunny, "Can you think of anything that has been happening that might explain what Saint Dane is trying to do?"  
  
"Yes," said Lita after a moment, she looked at Kaseph, he frowned at her but she continued, "On Xelios everyone is divided into classes. The classes are based on rank or how much power and money you have, or more correctly how much power and money you will get. There are five classes: Brown being the lowest of all classes. People who are in the Brown classes are treated like dirt with no respect at all. They work and live on the surface on the farms and in mines for the most part, they are also the only ones allowed on the surface except the guards. Then there is the White class, that's the class that Kaseph and I are in. We are not treated much better than the brown. Every person in the white class works with computers to make sure that if something goes wrong or a robot malfunctions that we fix it. Next comes the Green class, which is similar to ours except instead of working with computers they do other things like clerks and secretaries. The Blue class is next; they are the owners of businesses and the bosses of almost everyone. Guards are in the Blue class. The highest class is the Purple class. They are the people who are in control of the platforms; they are the guards bosses and own all the huge corporations."  
  
"The problem with classes is that the Blue and Purple classes treat everyone else with little to no respect at all," said Kaseph, "It's supposed to be that everyone is equal and when we first had classes they were, but now they have become corrupted by individuals who want power."  
  
I remembered the way Captain Towes had treated Lita compared to the receptionists and finally understood. It wasn't about age it was that the receptionists were in the Green class and Lita was only in the White. Even though they were both below the Blue guard he treated the Green receptionists better because they were higher. The whole idea of classes gave me a nasty taste in my mouth.  
  
"But the lower classes won't allow this to happen any longer!" said Kaseph angrily. "We are starting a rebellion against the higher classes. They will soon learn that they cannot treat us like dirt much longer! We want equal rights again!"  
  
I looked at Kaseph and then back to Lita. She wasn't smiling; I guess that she felt differently than Kaseph about the rebellion. All I could think was back on Denduron when the Milago had started a rebellion and almost killed everyone in the process, plus what would keep the lower classes from just taking over the higher classes positions and turning the tables on the Purple and Blue classes.  
  
"I think that this Saint Dane must be trying something else," said Kaseph confidently, "Because so far the rebellion is going just the way we want it to,"  
  
"No, I think you are wrong brother," said Lita, "I think that this is exactly what Saint Dane wants. If the classes go to war then it will cause all sorts of problems!"  
  
"But we want this revolution!" said Kaseph angrily, "Do you want to be treated like we are forever?"  
  
"No, but I feel that there must be some other way to resolve the problems with the classes than violent acts!" shouted Lita, "Also Saint Dane maybe doing something else along with causing the rebellion that we do no know about and for all we know the lower classes rebellion maybe exactly what he needs to put Xelios into total chaos." The two must have had this discussion before because they were both breathing heavily and glaring at each other.  
  
Then Kaseph turned to me and said, "Don't you think that it is our right to be equal with the higher classes, this discrimination can go on no longer!"  
  
I glanced at Gunny but his face was blank. "Kaseph, I understand that you want equal rights for the lower classes but I have to agree with Lita on this, there must be some way other than violence to talk to the higher classes. I'm worried that Saint Dane has alternative motives for causing this rebellion and that he is only using the lower classes as pawns in a much larger chess game."  
  
"But we've already tried talking to them, they just ignore us or tell us that they know what's best. The Purple and Blues act as if we can't think for ourselves!" shouted Kaseph angrily; he did not want to listen to us. Kaseph really believed in this rebellion and I could tell that he did not want to think that the lower classes were being used for some evil purpose.  
  
"We're almost home," interrupted Lita.  
  
I looked outside to see us reaching another platform. This one was smaller than Platform E but it was still larger than my old neighborhood back in Stony Brook.  
  
"Let's continue this discussion one we get home," said Lita tiredly. "I'm sure that with you here," she said looking at Gunny and I, "we can come up with a solution that benefits all." We slowly descended down to the platform. Well at least we had found the problem that Saint Dane was causing. He was starting a civil war between the classes. It was exactly something that Saint Dane would enjoy. 


	4. End of Journal 13

End of Journal 13  
  
Our speeder slowed down as we neared the new platform. We were actually below the platform and were heading to the garage. I watched as a set of glass doors slid open for us so that the speeder could enter the garage.  
  
"You guys are going to love our parents!" said Kaseph happily.  
  
"Do they also know about Travelers?" asked Gunny.  
  
"No, I thought it best not to tell them," replied Lita.  
  
I looked at Lita and Kaseph restlessly waiting to get off so that we could go to their home and meet their parents. Why hadn't Lita's family vanished, as had my family? Or Spader's family? I wanted to be happy for Lita but I felt envious that she still had a family to be with. I could still remember when I had first realized that my family was gone, I had stood in the empty lot that my house had been and it dawned on me that I would be a Traveler full time. I had thought that after Denduron I would be done with the whole Traveler business but I was wrong, here I was on Xelios ready to face Saint Dane once again after already standing against him on Denduron, Cloral, and First Earth. The speeder docked and we all filed out.  
  
"This way!" said Kaseph and hurriedly started walking to the doors. "We live only a couple minutes from here."  
  
Gunny and Kaseph walked in the front. I could here them both talking animatedly about their territories, something about the differences in sports. Lita and I walked a short distance behind them both lost in our own thoughts.  
  
"What's the matter?" asked Lita looking concerned.  
  
"Nothing," I said after a second. I didn't know why but I didn't want to tell her about my missing family, it didn't seem right not since we were on our way to meet hers. But again Lita seemed to know exactly what I was thinking.  
  
"There are gone aren't they?" she said sadly.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Your family, they are gone." She said it not as a question but as a statement.  
  
"Yes," I said heavily. "They just vanished, the house, my mom, dad, and little sister Shannon."  
  
"Press told me, when he was here last, that they aren't my real family, not even Kaseph but I've lived with them my whole life, I don't know how I could go on without them."  
  
We had both slowed down as we were talking and I noticed that Gunny and Kaseph had gotten way ahead of us.  
  
"Let's go, were gonna lose them," I said but Lita held me back.  
  
"Bobby, why didn't my family disappear like yours?" she asked starring at me again with her intense eyes.  
  
"I-I don't know," I said nervously.  
  
Lita dropped her eyes and looked at the ground.  
  
"It's strange, isn't it?" she said softly, "I haven't even told Kaseph, it would be a little strange trying to figure out why he and my parents hadn't disappeared."  
  
"Yeah, I guess so, but be happy, at least you still have them." I said. Ouch, that was a little harsh I thought but Lita didn't seem to mind instead she nodded and smiled.  
  
"They just seem different somehow, since I became a Traveler," she said, "I guess it's not my parents who have changed, it's me." I nodded at her understanding what she meant. I felt like I had changed a lot too. The old Bobby was gone replaced with Pendragon a Traveler. " Oh, wow they are already gone, aren't they?" said Lita looking up.  
  
I looked to where she was looking and she was right, Gunny and Kaseph were out of sight.  
  
"Come on!" Lita said and with that she grabbed my hand and we ran to catch up.  
  
We never did catch up with Gunny or Kaseph so instead we just headed to Lita's parents home, hoping that Gunny and Kaseph were already there. Platform L was much different than Platform E. It had houses that were actually much like houses on Second Earth only, more modern looking and more square-like. The houses also all looked the same; down to the last detail they looked exactly alike. Lita led me down the street of identical houses till we reached hers. I wondered how she could tell it apart from all the others but didn't bother asking. Lita pressed her hand the palm pad beside the door, "Welcome home, Lita Enders," said a mechanical voice as the front door slide open. As I walked into the Enders' home I immediately realized that though the houses may have looked like a normal Second Earth house on the outside they were totally different on the inside. We had walked into a small foyer with a sunroof above us. The walls were covered with pictures of Lita, Kaseph and her parents, but on the floor about two feet in front of us were four small bug-looking things that were shiny metallic with glowing green eyes.  
  
"Sweepets," Lita said simply.  
  
We walked about two feet when the same mechanical voice that had welcomed Lita said, "Please remove your shoes, the Sweepets have already cleaned this room, thank you." We both immediately removed our shoes. I was looking around for someplace to put them when Lita bent down and pushed a small button on the wall a door slid open to reveal a shoe rack. I smiled, built in storage space, cool. We walked into a cozy living room. It was furnished similar to a Second Earth house such as you guys living rooms would look, it had a sofa and a love seat next to a glass coffee table and it even had a way advanced television but they had no lamps or anything, the walls seemed to glow by themselves with some kind of artificial light.  
  
Lita caught me staring at the walls and explained, "It's the paint and material they use to build the walls. It gives off light, you can change the brightness by speaking to it."  
  
I couldn't help saying, "That's awesome!"  
  
"Kaseph? Gunny? Where are you guys?" yelled Lita.  
  
"Coming!" yelled a voice upstairs. Kaseph followed by Gunny came down the stairs, talking; they both already seemed to have become great friends.  
  
"Hey you guys, thanks for waiting for us!" I said jokingly.  
  
"Sorry, Pendragon we just got to talking and before we realized it we were home and you guys were out of sight," said Kaseph smiling.  
  
"Is Mother home?" asked Lita starting for the another room that I later learned was the kitchen.  
  
"No, but she left a note on the counter that she was shopping," replied Kaseph following her into the kitchen. It gave Gunny and I a minute by ourselves to talk.  
  
"So what do you think about this whole lower class rebellion going on?" asked Gunny sitting down on the dark blue sofa.  
  
I lowered myself onto the love seat, "I'm not sure, I understand the reason that Kaseph and the lower classes want this rebellion but I can't help thinking that Saint Dane is the one causing the violent feelings. If this rebellion continues aren't we just playing right into Saint Dane's hands?"  
  
"I think we had better just watch and wait, knowing Saint Dane we'll see him soon enough," replied Gunny.  
  
"I know, but I hate just waiting to find out what next destructive thing Saint Dane will do," I said angrily.  
  
"This whole Traveler business can really get to you sometimes, can't it?" said Lita from the doorway. She was carrying a plate of sandwiches in one of her hands and what looked like a palm pilot in the other hand. She came over and set the plate down on the table. "Rose made them so their bound to be good," she said and sat down beside me.  
  
"Who's Rose?" I asked.  
  
"Oh, Rose is our robot, well actually one of our robots," she said, "Everyone has robots to cook, clean, and do other daily chores. I don't know how we'd get along without them."  
  
I laughed, "You mean you can't cook or clean up around the house for yourselves?"  
  
"I can too!" said Lita somewhat indignantly, "It's just that why bother when you have happily willing robot to do it for you?"  
  
She had a point there. I wouldn't mind having my own little robot to do everything for me either.  
  
"Kaseph has some work that he must finish so he won't be joining us," said Lita, "Please eat up," she gestured to the sandwiches. Gunny and I each took one and started eating; neither of us had eaten since we had left Second Earth early this morning. I was starved! The sandwiches were good, though different; they tasted sweet like they were made of fruit and honey. For a while we just talked about Lita and her family. Lita worked for the Kyliger Corporation, which was involved in communications having to do with robotics and main system grids. Some of what she talked about was lost on me because for one, Second Earth just wasn't as advanced in computers as Xelios and two, I wasn't exactly the computer expert back at home anyway. Mark I'm sure you would have understood her a lot better. Lita seems to really know a lot, especially for only being 15 years old. Yep, I had to ask her how old she because I didn't understand how someone so young could be working in a full time job. Lita said that your job wasn't so much based on age as talent and ability. Obviously she has the ability to do whatever it is she does in her job. Lita explained that Kaseph works developing speeder parts and works on their repair. Lita's parents both work with robots. I guess being in the White class pretty much guarantees you a job in electronics and computers. It was nice just talking about Xelios and not worrying about what might happen if Saint Dane has his way.  
  
"Here, I want you to have this," said Lita handing me the palm pilot thingy that she had in her hand. "I'll get you one too, Gunny I just have to borrow one from Kaseph. I'm letting Bobby borrow mine for the time that you guys stay here."  
  
"What is it?" I asked taking it from her hand.  
  
"A Messenger, we use them to record our thoughts. Kind of like a diary," she replied, "The great thing about them is that you can send the computer chip through your ring to whoever you are writing to."  
  
Cool, I thought. So instead of having to write everything out I can just talk into the Messenger save the data on a computer chip and send it to you guys, presto! This is my first computer chip and I've decided to stop here. I'm writing this in a guest bedroom that Lita let Gunny and I share. I still haven't met her parents, Lita said her father works late hours and the shopping center her mother went to is quite some distance. That's fine with me though, Lita said she'd think up something to explain why a 15-year- old boy and an elderly gentlemen are staying at their house but just in case she forgets I need to think up a reason to tell the Enders. Tomorrow Lita is going to try and get Gunny and I jobs working at a different building nearby hers. It's too dangerous for us not to have jobs and she if we tried to get a job at her building Captain Towes might recognize us. She said she'd find us something simple like making sure all the robots are turned on during the day. Nothing to complicated I hope. So far Saint Dane hasn't shown his face but I know he's around and up to no good as usual. I'll send you another journal as soon as I have the time. 


	5. Mark and Courtney

Mark set the Messenger down on the table in Courtney's basement. He leaned back on her sofa.  
  
"What do you think?"  
  
Courtney leaned back on the sofa too, "Well, I hope that Lita and Bobby are right about Saint Dane, I mean, if the whole rebellion thing is not really him and he's just using it as a cover up." she trailed off not wanting to finish her statement.  
  
"I agree," said Mark, "I wish we were able to communicate with Bobby too."  
  
"Yeah, that would be nice," mused Courtney, "Hey, maybe we can with this new piece of technology!" Courtney picked up the Messenger and started playing with the buttons on the screen.  
  
"Uh, Courtney, I'm not sure if we should be messing with it, what if we mess it up and can't use it?" said Mark nervously.  
  
"Well then you play with it, since you are more of an expert at computers than I am," Courtney said tossing the Messenger to Mark. Mark caught it and then carefully put it down on the table. He started playing with the buttons going through different screens.  
  
"What do you make of it?" asked Courtney peering over his shoulder.  
  
"I don't know, everything seems to have some type of code on it. I can't open anything but Bobby's journal."  
  
"Drats!" Courtney said frustrated.  
  
"Didn't Bobby say this belonged to Lita? I bet that she didn't want us snooping around into anything else such as her own journal," said Mark.  
  
"I suppose so, it's just that I miss Bobby. I want to be able to talk to him and tell him about everything that is going on here. I really wish he would just stop this Traveler business and come home," Said Courtney.  
  
"You and I both know he can't do that," replied Mark.  
  
Courtney sighed but nodded. "Want to go and get some fries from the Garden?" she asked.  
  
"Sure!" replied Mark. The french-fries at the Garden were the best fries in the world.  
  
"Race you to the Garden?" asked Courtney and with that she bounded up the basement stairs. Mark pocketed the Messenger and trotted up the steps after her. There was no point in actually trying to race Courtney. She was like the total athlete. Mark doubted if even Bobby could beat her to the Garden. By the time Mark made it to the Garden Courtney had already orded two fries for them.  
  
"Here ya go," she said passing him one of the fries while she dug into the other. "Mmmm.these are so good!" she said sitting back in her chair. Mark popped one of the fries into his mouth and smiled. Nothing could make you feel better than fries from the Garden.  
  
"So when do you think we'll get another journal?" asked Courtney.  
  
"How should I know?" replied Mark irritated.  
  
Courtney laughed, "You know, you get so red when you get angry."  
  
Mark tried to stop from blushing. "And you get red when you are embarrassed too!" said Courtney smiling. The two started talking about Bobby but after awhile their conversation turned away from Bobby and they just chatted about school and things going on around them. The finally left after each having two fries and a soda promising that they would get in touch as soon as another of Bobby's journals came via Mark's ring. Mark hoped that another journal from Bobby arrived soon. He was really starting to enjoy spending time with Courtney.  
  
Mark didn't have to wait long. The next journal arrived two days later. The problem was that Mark was sitting in the middle of algebra when he felt his ring start twitching. "Oh great," he thought, "Just what I need." He hurridley told the teacher that he had to go to the bathroom and rushed out of the classroom, he hadn't even waited for an answer from the teacher. The ring was already starting to get bigger and there was no way he was going to make it to the bathroom that he normally received Bobby's journals in. He had always used that bathroom because nobody came in there except the occasional janitor but he was out of luck today. Music started to play from the ring and the diameter was still growing! Then of all bad things the worst had to happen, a teacher and her class were coming down the hall heading for the library and they were going to go right past Mark in doing so. Mark ran towards a janitors closet and just managed to dive into the room and close the door before the class reached the hall he was on. Mark sighed with relief he was safe. The ring expanded to it's fullest and then Bobby's newest journal appeared or actually a computer chip appeared with a note attached to it. The music stopped and the ring returned to normal size. Mark picked it up and put it back on his finger. Bending down Mark picked up the note and computer chip. Mark read the note silently to himself:  
  
"Mark, Courtney this is my next journal. Just take the last computer chip out and put this one in. Hope you guys are doing ok. Bobby."  
  
Mark put the computer chip back in his pocket and returned to class. It was awful trying to finish the day knowing that he had Bobby's next journal in his pocket. Suddenly algebra just didn't matter to him. As soon as school was over Mark rushed to Courtney's locker, he had to push through two jocks wanting to know if she wanted to play some football with them on Saturday but he finally managed to reach Courtney. All Courtney had to see was the look and Mark's eye and the fact that he had come to her locker and she knew what it was.  
  
"Another one?" she asked. Mark nodded.  
  
Courtney frowned, "My parents are going through our basement so that the can sell some of the junk in there so we can't read it there."  
  
"How about the Pocket?" suggested Mark. The Pocket was a small park surrounded by other shops that the local kids liked to hang out at. They had met Bobby there the last time he had come home.  
  
"Well that would normally work if we were trying to read Bobby's journals but since they now speak I don't think that would be the best idea," replied Courtney testily.  
  
"Oh, didn't think of that," said Mark, "Hey, let's just go to my house, I've got to get the Messenger anyway."  
  
"Alright, but I'm going to my house first to get some scented candles, I don't think I can handle staying in your room more than a few minutes with the smell that it has," replied Courtney. Mark grimaced; he had better run home and pick up some certain things in his room that he didn't want Courtney to see.  
  
"Alright, I'll meet you at your house in fifteen minutes, sound good?" said Courtney.  
  
"Works for me," replied Mark.  
  
Fifteen minutes later Mark and Courtney were sitting on Mark's bed. Mark had the Messenger and he slowly pulled out the first chip and put the second one in. He then pushed the button on the Messenger screen that read: Journal 14. 


	6. Journal 14

Journal 14  
  
Well, guys a lot has happened since my last journal. I hardly know where to start. I guess I'll go back to the second day we were on Xelios. Lita, as promised, found us jobs at a building across the street from Kyliger Corporation, the building that she worked in. It's a simple job, all we have to do is write down the amount of time it takes each robot to do their job and how well they do it. I guess they want to find out which robots are more efficient. Gunny and I spend most of the day reading up on Xelios. They have something similar to Third Earth's virtual library where you can access large amounts of information through their computers. I learned that Xelios didn't always have classes; they were just like Second Earth is with lots of different countries fighting but then came along a man named Perphyus who developed the idea that there shouldn't be individual countries just one planet. He devised a system, the classes, so that everyone had a part in the running of a platform. Unfortunately, as the years went by the classes were changed so that it was more of rank than just different jobs. Instead of each class having an equal amount to do some classes had to do more and others had acquired more power than the rest. Now, Xelios is segregated and those of the lower classes aren't happy. Everyone I go I see signs of protest from people refusing to work to hearing about a fire set in a Purple or Blue household. Gunny and I were sure that any minute an all out war would start. For two weeks everything was normal, or as normal as a territory can be when it is close to having a civil war. Gunny, Lita, and I would ride to work in the family speeder. Kaseph worked on a different platform and had his own speeder. Lita and Kaseph's parents worked on the same platform that they lived on so they just walked to their jobs. We met Lita and Kaseph's parents. They were nice and didn't mind if we stayed. Gunny and Kaseph were becoming good friends but for some reason I didn't talk to Kaseph as much. I guess it was that he was obsessed with the whole rebellion thing and I couldn't help thinking that Kaseph's thoughts were too extreme. He sounded like he meant well but what he was planning was a war on the higher classes, once they won the war they would make themselves the rulers. I think Lita felt the same way as I did. She always told Kaseph to drop the subject when he started going on about the rebellion. Things went ok until last week. Gunny and I had just finished work and were heading to the parking lot to wait for Lita when there was a huge explosion. It was so close to Gunny and I that we were thrown into the air and landed nearly six feet away. The impact with the asphalt hurt but I luckily landed rather smoothly I would have bruises the next day but I hadn't broken anything. I turned over and looked back at what had happened. What I saw made my heart stop. It was the Kyliger building! It had blown up!  
  
"Oh my god! Gunny! Lita was in there!" I yelled grabbing Gunny. His limp body didn't move. He was knocked out cold. His head had hit the pavement hard when we had been thrown into the air. That's when I freaked. I mean, Lita had been so nice to us and we had actually become good friends, she always seemed to know exactly what was on in my mind. I couldn't believe that she was gone. I needed Gunny's comforting words or Spader's bright response. What I really needed was Uncle Press, but he wasn't here, nor Spader and for the moment Gunny wasn't either. I jumped up and ran towards the burning building. The building was on fire in many spots and the heat was intense. A huge black cloud of smoke was billowing out of the fifth story windows. I could hear sirens in the distance, presumably the firemen coming to put out the fire. That's when I noticed people streaming out of the front door. There were survivors! I hoped that Lita was one of them. I ran up the steps looking for Lita among the survivors.  
  
"Lita!" I yelled over the noise. "Lita, where are you?"  
  
The last few straggling survivors were coming through the doors. None of them were Lita. I scanned the group of huddled survivors but didn't see any sign of Lita. No, I thought angrily, this is not supposed to happen. How could all of these people make it and not Lita? Why did everyone I ever cared about have to die or disappear? Then I heard a familiar voice.  
  
"Bobby?"  
  
I turned around and there facing me was Lita, her face had cuts on it and she was holding her arm which had a small burn on it, but she was alive. I almost cried for joy I was so happy.  
  
"Lita!" I said and hugged her.  
  
Lita sobbed into my shoulder. "It was so awful, it happened so fast."  
  
"But it's over now," I said reassuringly.  
  
"No, it's not," replied Lita letting go of me. "Somebody did this on purpose I heard some of the other survivors saying that it was a bomb that made the explosion, and they killed people. We need to find out who did this and why."  
  
I was about to argue with her when I noticed her determined eyes. Lita was on a mission and there was no way I could stop her.  
  
"Where's Gunny?" asked Lita looking around.  
  
"Oh, I ah, left him over there," I said pointing towards where Gunny was still laying on the ground. "He was knocked out cold when the bomb went off." I looked back towards Gunny guiltily, why had I just left him there without making sure he was really ok. I had been so worried about Lita that I had disregarded my other friend.  
  
"Come on," said Lita pulling me back towards Gunny. He was still out; he had a large cut on his forehead where he had hit the pavement.  
  
"Help me get him up," said Lita struggling to pick up Gunny.  
  
"Where are we going to put him," I said breathing heavily from Gunny's bulk.  
  
"Let's try and get him to that bench over there," replied Lita nodding her head towards a solitary bench next to a book store. We dragged Gunny over to the bench where we laid him down gently.  
  
Gunny groaned raising his hand slightly.  
  
"Gunny, just stay still you shouldn't be moving," said Lita worriedly.  
  
"Where am I? What happened?" asked Gunny not opening his eyes.  
  
"It's ok, Gunny," I said, "You were knocked out by the explosion.  
  
"Gunny, just take your time, you may have a concussion." said Lita.  
  
Gunny opened his eyes squinting up at us. "What the hell happened?" he said slowly sitting up. He put his hand to his head where his cut was. "Saint Dane?" he asked.  
  
I shook my head, as Lita said, "No, someone set a bomb off in the building I worked at."  
  
Gunny looked stunned for a moment. "You ok?" he asked her.  
  
"Yes, I'm fine," said Lita but I could tell she was still extremely upset about the bombing.  
  
"Let's get back home," I said. Lita nodded and we helped Gunny up off the bench.  
  
"Do you think you can walk?" I asked Gunny.  
  
"Yeah, I'll be ok, I just need some ice," replied Gunny smiling grimly. We headed back to the parking lot and boarded our speeder. By the time we made it home the suns were almost below the horizon.  
  
"Mom! Dad! Kaseph!" yelled Lita as we entered the house.  
  
"Oh honey, you're ok!" said Lita's mother tearfully, "I heard about Kyliger on the news, I was worried sick!" Lita's mom smothered Lita in kisses and hugged her tightly. Lita hugged her mother back but no tears came, she still had the same determined look that I had seen when I had found her. "Are you hurt?" asked Lita's mother pushing Lita back so she could look at her.  
  
"Just some scratches," replied Lita offhandedly. I could tell that Lita was trying to hide her arm but it didn't work. Mrs. Enders grabbed her arm and looked at the burn.  
  
"No, this is a burn, a bad one at that," said Lita's mother pointing to the burn on her arm. "Come with me into the kitchen while I clean it up, we can't have it getting infected. Lita's mom glanced at us and noticed Gunny's cut.  
  
"Oh my, Mr. Van Dyke your head," she said worriedly. "You better come with me to the kitchen also, I'll get you a bandage." Gunny smiled, "You're too kind to me, Eliza," he said referring to Lita's mother.  
  
"And how about you, Bobby, are you hurt as well?" she said rounding on me.  
  
"No, I'm perfectly fine," I said smiling.  
  
"Well, that's good to hear, if you don't mind could you go and tell Kaseph that his sister is back, he is on the phone right now with the hospital, he's in his room," said Mrs. Enders pushing Lita and Gunny into the kitchen.  
  
"Sure thing," I said and climbed up the steps to Kaseph's room. My mind wandered as I walked up the stairs, could Saint Dane have been involved? What if he had targeted the Kyliger building because of Lita? Did he even know that Lita was a Traveler? I wasn't even sure if Saint Dane was actually on Xelios. So far we hadn't seen any sign of him. It made sense for Saint Dane to be behind the rebellion but I hadn't heard anything about him. Saint Dane was the type of person who liked to make himself known so why hadn't he shown himself yet? I walked down the hall towards Kaseph's room still wondering about Saint Dane. I knocked quietly on Kaseph's door, it swung open immediately. I took a step back, Kaseph looked angry.  
  
"What?" he said angrily opening his door slightly and looking at me.  
  
"I just wanted to let you know that Lita is back and she's ok," I said still starring at Kaseph. He seemed different but I couldn't figure out why. His eyes were blazing and seemed blue instead of their normal golden hue.  
  
"Thank the Whisperer," said Kaseph opening the door wide. He sighed and went over to his bed and slumped down. I stepped in and stood near his dresser looking at a collection of speeder collectible models. For a moment he had seemed like his old self but then he seemed to change and he got anger again. "So what happened exactly, Pendragon?" asked Kaseph looking up at me.  
  
"Someone put a bomb in the Kyliger building on the fifth floor, it went off just as Gunny and I were heading to the parking lot, Gunny got knocked out, I ran to the building to find Lita. She was alright but she is sure that the bomb was targeted at Kyliger for a reason and is planning on finding out who did it and why." I said quietly. It seemed to have happened so long ago but in reality it was only about an hour ago.  
  
"What did the building look like after the explosion?" asked Kaseph eagerly.  
  
"Well like any building would have being blown up, it was totally destroyed," I said confused at why Kaseph cared what the building looked like.  
  
"It serves those high class jerks right!" said Kaseph smiling.  
  
"What are you talking about?" I said, "People died today, a lot of people, and what makes you think that the high classes were the target?"  
  
"You said the bomb went off on the fifth floor, didn't you? That's where the administrations and bosses have offices; I bet they were killed instantly. It's unfortunate that others were sacrificed for the good of the lower class rebellion but it had to be done," replied Kaseph calmly.  
  
I couldn't believe what I was hearing, "But-but," I stuttered, "Your sister could have been killed! And what do you mean about being for the greater good of the lower classes? Are you saying that you knew this was going to happen?" I was starting to get angry, what on earth was Kaseph thinking.  
  
"I knew, of course, that they were planning on bombing a building I just didn't know when or which building. It was a plan to make those high-class fools realize that we are serious about t his rebellion. If I had known that they had targeted Kyliger than I would have, of course, told them to pick another target since Lita works their."  
  
"I can't believe I'm hearing this!" I shouted at Kaseph. "You are calmly talking about the deaths of hundreds of people, it doesn't matter what class they are, they shouldn't have been killed!" What was wrong with Kaseph, I understood that he didn't like the idea of classes and it did sound as if the lower classes were being mistreated but did it really call for bombings?  
  
"Pendragon," replied Kaseph smiling, "I can see why you would not understand why we do this but you have not lived your whole life being treated like dirt while others lived in luxury with more power than they deserve. We do this for the good of Xelios"  
  
I shook my head. Kaseph really believed what he was saying, that or he was a really good actor. "No Kaseph, you aren't doing this for Xelios you are doing it for your own profit, you just want power. And," I took a deep breath, "I won't let you hurt people, it's not right Kaseph, can't you see that there are other ways of dealing with the problem than violence?"  
  
I started to walk out of his room when Kaseph blocked my way, his eyes were blazing again and I could have sworn they looked blue. "How dare you!" he said grabbing hold of my shirt and pulling me so that my nose was almost touching his, "If you even think about getting in our way than I won't hesitate in turning you over to the government and I'll tell them everything. I'll tell them about how you and Gunny are Travelers. You can be sure that they won't be pleased to hear that, plus I'm sure your good friend Captain Towes would love to get his hands on you." He continued to glare at me for a second and then let go of me. I walked out willing myself to be cool and not act like act like a loser. I felt like running out and running away. Things had gone from bad to worse today, first the bombing and then Kaseph.  
  
I walked back downstairs and headed to the kitchen. Mrs. Enders was just finishing putting on a bandage on Gunny's head. I walked over to Lita who was starting to prepare dinner.  
  
"Need some help?" I asked mulling over what Kaseph had just said.  
  
"Sure!" she said. "Get out those vegetables and start chopping them into small pieces. I'm going to make us one of my favorite dishes."  
  
It amazed me that after her near death Lita was so happy. I don't think that I would act like that right after I almost got blown up. Maybe it's just Lita's way of dealing with things but somehow I think Lita is just like that. She doesn't let things bother her for very long. I walked over to the hanging vegetables and got a knife out of one of the drawers, it surprised me how I could get around the Enders' kitchen so well even though I had only been here for two weeks. I guess being a Traveler and always going somewhere new so often you have to learn to adapt quickly to your new surroundings.  
  
I walked back over to where Lita was mixing up something and whispered in her ear, "We need to talk."  
  
Lita glanced at me startled, "About what?" she whispered back.  
  
"Kaseph," I replied.  
  
"Can't we talk now?" she asked.  
  
"I rather you mother not hear what I'm going to say."  
  
Lita sighed and looked over at her mother talking with Gunny. "Alright, I'll see if she can't finish this and we can go outside, will that work?"  
  
"Yes, I'll get Gunny too, I think he needs to hear this also," I said as I finished chopping up the vegetables.  
  
As it turned out Lita didn't have to ask her mother to finish dinner, Mrs. Enders insisted that we go and rest after such a traumatic experience and that she would fix dinner. It was fine with me because it gave Gunny, Lita and I a chance to talk. We went outside to the Enders' backyard.  
  
"What's going on?" asked Gunny confused.  
  
"Something about Kaseph," said Lita looking at me.  
  
So I told them about the conversation that Kaseph and I had when they had been in the kitchen. I explained that Kaseph knew they were going to blow up a building and hurt people he was even happy about it because some of the higher-class citizens were killed in the process. I also told them about Kaseph threatening to turn Gunny and myself over if we tried to interfere with the rebellion. I waited a second to let everything sink in. Gunny started at me disbelievingly. Lita just looked plain angry.  
  
"I don't believe it!" said Lita angrily. "That is just not the way Kaseph is, he would never do something to hurt anyone."  
  
"Are you sure that's what Kaseph said," asked Gunny, "I have spent a lot of time with Kaseph and he has never seemed quite so blood thirsty before, sure he has been very passionate about the lower class rebellion but I can't see him planning to hurt anyone."  
  
"I know exactly what I heard him say, and believe me I wouldn't have thought Kaseph could be alright with something like a bombing either but you should have seen him, his eyes were like blazing!" I said.  
  
"Alright, I believe you," said Gunny tiredly. "Maybe we should go and talk with Kaseph again. Explain to him that there are other options such as negotiation and diplomacy."  
  
"You can go ahead and try but I tried to tell him that and then he started threatening me."  
  
"I know Kaseph has always been a little hot-headed but never to the extent that you are talking about Bobby," said Lita looking upset. "Let me go and talk with him, I'm his sister maybe he'll listen to me,"  
  
"He never listened to you before," I said. As soon as I said it I wished I could take it back, it was awfully harsh.  
  
"Well this time I'll just have to make him listen," replied Lita coldly. She stalked back to the door and went inside.  
  
I sighed and sat down on one of the chairs the Enders' had placed outside. "It won't work," I said heavily, "You just had to hear the way Kaseph was talking and how he looked, he was like a maniac and he truly believes that he is doing the right thing,"  
  
"Just let Lita try, you never know, she may be able to get through to him."  
  
"I guess you're right Gunny it's just that." I trailed off.  
  
"What is it Pendragon?" asked Gunny sitting down in one of the chairs next to me.  
  
"It's just that the way Kaseph looked, he scared me a lot, it was almost like he had completely changed into someone else."  
  
"Sometimes it is scary when you see the darker side of people but it's still Kaseph he just believes so strongly in what he's doing that he is now aware of how he is treating others," said Gunny comfortingly.  
  
"I'm not sure Gunny, this was different."  
  
"Let's go back inside, we can talk about this more in the morning," said Gunny standing up. I nodded, he was right, it would be better to discuss things later but I had this nagging feeling like I had forgotten something, something extremely important. I stretched and followed Gunny back inside. All through dinner I still had the feeling. It didn't help that neither Lita nor Kaseph was talking to me. Whenever I looked at Kaseph he smiled but it wasn't a nice smile and Lita totally ignored me. I'm not sure if she is more upset with the change in Kaseph or that I was rude to her. There is still no sign of Saint Dane, which worries me; maybe Gunny and I are looking in the wrong place. 


End file.
